War, Propaganda and the Intellectual: A Gramscian Approach to Bernard Shaw's "Common Sense About the War" (1914)

Bu makale Shaw'un "Savaş Hakkında Ortak Akıl" (1914) başlıklı kitapçığını İngiliz ve Alman entelektüellerinin savaş ile ilgili yayınladıkları bildirilerin ışığında okumayı amaçlamaktadır. Hen İngiliz hem de Alman hükümetleri daha savaşın başlangıcında aydınlardan başlattıkları savaşı savunacak bildiriler yayınlamaları talebinde bulundu. Her iki ülkenin de önde gelen yazarları, sanatçıları ve bilimcileri tarafından yayımlanan bu bildirilerin hemen hepsi siyasi yapının anlatısını doğrular ve destekler ve onunla uyumlu nitelikteydi. Bu makale Gramsci'nin entelektüeller üzerine gözlemlerini başlangıç noktası olarak kabul eden Gramscici bir okumadır. Gramsci entelektüellerin rolü üzerine şöyle bir saptamada bulunuyor: "entelektüeller egemenlik mücadelesinde büyük bir rol oynarlar." Bernard Shaw'un "Savaş Hakkında Ortak Akıl"'ı da işte bu "hegemonya mücadelesinde" böylesine önemli bir rol oynamayı hedefleyen bir metindir. Döneminin "ortak akıl" sayılan fikirlerini sorgulamaya açan Shaw, savaş gibi en hayati bir konuda yurtsever ve etnik merkezli pozisyonları konusunda, halkı çok daha sorgulayıcı ve eleştirel olmaya davet etmektedir. Gramscici bir anlatımla Shaw halkı pek sorgulanmadan kabul edilen "ortak akıl" ("common sense") yerine "aklıselim" ("good sense") kullanmaya davet eder. Shaw "Savaş Hakkında Ortak Akıl" başlıklı eserinde işte bu çok sorgulanmayan ortak akıla müdahele ederek onun sorgulanmasına kapı aralamaya çalışır. İnsanlara savaş ve savaşın başlangıcı hakkındaki romantik, yüceleştirilmiş görüşlerini bir kenara bırakmaları çağrısında bulunur. İdeolojik farklılıklarına rağmen İngiltere'de Kipling, Bennett, Wells, Pankhurst ve Doyle gibi bir çok ünlü siyasetçi, yazar ve aydın yurtseverlik şemsiyesinin altında buluşmuştur. Shaw'un çıkışı bu ortak akla meydan okuyan ve onu tartışmaya açan önemli bir metindir

Savaş, Propaganda ve Aydın: Bernard Shaw'un "Savaş Hakkında Ortak Akıl"'ına Gramscici Bir Yaklaşım

This essay aims to read Shaw's "Common Sense About the War" (1914) within the context of the British and German intellectual's public declarations on the war. Both British and German governments demanded their intellectuals to defend their war to the public and to the world. Declarations made by significant figures of both nations affirm the narrative told by the political body. This is a Gramscian reading which takes Gramsci's observation on the role of intellectuals: "intellectuals play a major role in the struggle for hegemony". Shaw's "Common Sense About the War" was just that act "in the struggle for hegemony." Challenging the "common sense" views of his times, Shaw attempted to urge the public to be more critical and questioning about their patriotic and ethnocentric positions on most vital issues such as war. In Gramscian terms, he invites the public to use "good sense" rather than the taken for granted "common sense". Shaw uses the phrase "common sense" in his title to invite the public to "common sense" leaving aside their romantic, idealised views on the war and its causes. Despite their ideological differences, British public figures such as Kipling, Bennett, Wells, Christabel Pankhurst and Doyle among others seemed all to be united at that time of war under the banner of patriotism. Shaw's text in this sense contests the hegemonic discourse of the time

PDF

___

About the New Statesman. (2016, Dec. 30). General format. Retrieved from http://www.newstatesman.com/about-new-statesman.
Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism. London and New York: Verso.
Appeal of the German Universities. (1914). The New York Times Current History of the European War: What Men of Letters Say. 1(1). The New York Times Company: New York, 187-188.
Barlow, A. (2000). The Great War in British Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
British Authors Defend England's War. (1914). The New York Times Current History of the European War: What Men of Letters Say: 1(1). New York: The New York Times Company, 82-86.
Boutroux, E. (1914). Germany's civilized barbarism. The New York Times Current History of the European War: What Men of Letters Say: 1(1). New York: The New York Times Company, 160-169.
Clarke, I. F. (Ed.). (1995). The Tale of the Next Great War, 1871-1914: Fictions of Future Warfare and of Battles Still-To-Come. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. Retrieved from Questia.
Collins, R. F. (2008). World War I: Primary Documents on Events from 1914 to 1919. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Retrieved from Questia.
"Common sense". Oxford English dictionary.
Drocking, G. (2009). Internationalism and the Arts in Britain and Europe at the Fin de Siecle. Peter Lang. Retrieved from Google Books.
Eubank, K. (Ed.). (2004). The Origins of World War II (3rd ed.). Wheeling, IL: Harlan Davidson. Retrieved from Questia. Gramsci, A. (1999). A Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings, 1916-1935. Ed. Forgacs, D. London: Lawrence & Wishart. Retrieved from Questia.
Griffith, G. (1995). Socialism and Superior Brains: The Political Thought of Bernard Shaw. New York: Routledge. Retrieved from Questia.
Gündüz, A. (2013). GB Shaw's citizens of the world in John Bull's Other Island. Celal Bayar University Social Sciences Journal, Vol:11, 3-27.
Holroyd, M. (1989). Bernard Shaw Volume II 1898-1918: Pursuit of Power. London: Chatto and Windus.
Howard, M. (2002.) The First World War: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford and New York: Oxford UP.
Hyams, E., & Freeman, J. (1963). The New Statesman: The History of the First Fifty Years, 1913-1963. London: Longmans. Retrieved from Questia.
Luckhurst, M. (2006). A wounded stage: Drama and World War I. A Companion to Modern British and Irish Drama: 1880 - 2005. Malden and Oxford: Blacwell Publishing, 301-315. Retrieved from Google Books.
Ponsonby, A. (1928). Falsehood in War-Time, Containing an Assortment of Lies Circulated throughout the Nations during the Great War: Containing an Assortment of Lies Circulated throughout the Nations during the Great War. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company. Retrieved from Questia.
Sanders, M. L. (1975). Wellington House and British Propaganda during the First World War. The Historical Journal: 18(1), 119-146.
Retrieved from: www.jstor.org/stable/2638471.
Sassoon, A. S. Ed. (2012). Gramsci'ye Farklı Yaklaşımlar. Trans. Mustafa Kemal Coşkun, Burcu Şentürk et al. Ankara: Dipnot Yayınları.
Shaw, B. (1985). Call you this discipline? Agitations: Letters to the Press 1875-1950. Ed. By Dan H. Laurence and James Rambeau. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing, pp. 160-63.
Shaw, G. B. (1914). Common sense about the war. The New York Times Current History of the European War: What Men of Letters Say . Vol. 1. No. 1. The New York Times Company, New York, 11-60.
Shaw, G. B. (1931a). O'Flaherty VC. The Complete Plays of Bernard Shaw. London: Constable. Retrieved from Questia. Shaw, G. B. (1931b). The Inca of Perusalem. The Complete Plays of Bernard Shaw. London: Constable. Retrieved from Questia. Shaw, G. B. (1985). To Siegfried Trebitsch. Bernard Shaw Collected Letters 1911-1925. Ed. Dan H. Laurence. New York: Viking, 243.
Shaw, G. B. Trebitsch, Siegfried. (1986). Bernard Shaw's Letters to Siegfried Trebitsch. Ed. Samuel Abba Weiss. Stanford University Press, Retrieved from Google Books.
Simon, R. (1991). Gramsci's Political Thought: An Introduction. London: Lawrence & Wishart. Retrieved from Questia.
Szporluk, R. (1991). Communism and Nationalism: Karl Marx Versus Friedrich List. New York: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from Questia.
To the civilized world: By professors of Germany. (1914). The New York Times Current History of the European War: What Men of Letters Say: 1(1). The New York Times Company, New York, 185-87.
Weintraub, S. (1973). Bernard Shaw 1914-1918: Journey to Heartbreak. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Weintraub, S. and Weiss, Samuel Abba. Ed. (1986). Introduction. Bernard Shaw's Letters to Siegfried Trebitsch. Stanford University Press, 3-17. Retrieved from Google Books.
Welch, D and Fox, J. (2012). Justifying war: Propaganda, politics and the modern age. Justifying War: Propaganda, Politics and the Modern Age. Ed. David Welch and Jo Fox. Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1-20.
Welch, D. (2012). War aims and the 'Big Ideas' of 1914. David Welch and Jo Fox (Eds). Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 71-94.